49 episodes listed below
Hardware reverse engineering with the bench clutter visible.
Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast is a conversational hardware reverse engineering show built around devices, protocols, tools, and the people pulling them apart. Recent episodes range from Flock cameras and cable modems to DeskThing flashing, access control systems, wireless hacking, and chip reverse engineering.
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Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast is a hardware reverse engineering show with a lived-in, conversational feel. Its recent run moves across surveillance cameras, cable modems, DeskThing flashing, access control systems, wireless hacking, computer chip reverse engineering, firmware extraction, and the social world around security conferences. The show does not sand off its rough edges. Openings can wander through beatboxing, movie plans, forgotten recording buttons, and the problem of getting started before the conversation settles into devices and methods. That informality gives the technical material a particular shape. Instead of presenting reverse engineering as a finished paper, the show often follows how people found a device, what tools mattered, where a protocol got strange, and which parts of a system remained awkward or flawed. Recent conversations spend time with practical systems that touch the outside world: Flock cameras logging license plates, DOCSIS cable modem behavior, offline physical access control, hotel lock ecosystems, and wireless research. It also has room for community infrastructure. CypherCon, Teardown Conference, Access Control Village, Reverse Engineering Plus Plus, and the Mountain View Reverse Engineering Meetup all appear as places where projects, guests, and stories cross paths. The guests are allowed to bring specific work into the room, from DeskThing and Amlogic flashing paths to access control villages and published wireless research. The hosts' questions often keep the discussion grounded in how something is configured, queried, flashed, or physically handled. That gives the show a useful rhythm: casual banter, then a technical knot, then a practical explanation. It is not a polished classroom lecture. It is closer to listening in while capable people compare notes, chase context, and occasionally laugh at how weird the work gets. The subject matter can be serious, especially when surveillance, vulnerabilities, and access systems enter the conversation. The copybook version of reverse engineering can feel sterile; this show keeps the bench clutter visible. It suits a listener who wants device-level security talk, hardware curiosity, and conference-community texture without losing the human chatter around it. Its strongest quality is the contrast between low-ceremony conversation and highly specific technical terrain.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants hardware security, device teardowns, protocols, firmware, and conference-scene context in conversational form. It is best for someone comfortable with technical detail and informal pacing.
What sets it apart: The show pairs practical reverse engineering detail with the texture of real community conversation. Its episodes can move from jokes and awkward starts into modem protocols, lock systems, chipsets, and surveillance-camera research without changing rooms.
Listen and learn about different reverse engineering hardware projects and methods as Alvaro (@alvaroprieto) and Jen(@rebelbotjen) talk with guests about their work.
Six hours to flash a device becomes five minutes; your inner tinkerer can unclench.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A DeskThing flashing breakthrough turns Discord binaries into a playful reverse-engineering mystery.
Reverse engineering turns into a light comic mystery in this PlayNext review of DeskThing, an open-source software project whose device-flashing process became a story of stubborn iteration and strange timing.
A grounded look at hotel locks, offline access systems, and the vulnerabilities researchers are still tracing.
Access control gets a focused, practical pass as Jen Castillo and Alvaro Prieto bring in Noah Holland and Josh to talk through digital locks, physical locks, and the weak points that can hide inside hotel access systems.
A grounded conversation about reverse engineering, management, and the social habits behind technical work.
Jen Castillo, also known as RebelBotJen, and Alvaro Prieto join Reverse Engineering Plus Plus for a relaxed look at the story behind their still-unnamed Reverse Engineering podcast, beginning with the Mountain View Reverse Engineering meetup where they first connected.
Retro hardware advice with the caveats left in.
Hardware news with bite, memory, and receipts.
["Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast 077, 'The Beatbox Diversion,' opens with a beatboxing class joke before Alvaro and Jenna frame 2025 as a year about control, not novelty.", "They describe monopolistic consolidation, surveillance creep, and AI exploitation as the common pattern behind the year's technology news.", "The discussion cites iFixit, 404 Media, Flock cameras, Meta Ray-Ban glasses, DMCA exemptions, and California repair rights to show how those fights play out in practice.", "Later, they switch to Dave Agans's debugging book, Dungeon Crawler Carl, Storygraph, and Letterboxd as personal recommendations and examples of how they consume media."]
Jen Costillo and Alvaro talk with Dan Walters, also called Byte Tinker, about the CypherCon ISP hacking ward and why cable-modem infrastructure exposes so much surface area.
Spotify sold Car Thing for $90, later cut it to $30, and then announced it would stop making the device and ask owners to dispose of it responsibly.
Jen Castillo and Alvaro Prieto host Noah Holland and Josh, who explain how the Michigan Tech Red Team grew an Access Control Village from an improvised SecretCon table into a formal CypherCon demo.
["Reverse Engineering Plus Plus cross-posts a Friday, 24 January 2025 conversation with Jen Castillo and Alvaro Prieto, the duo behind the unnamed Reverse Engineering podcast.", "Del introduces them as long-time listeners who brought their Mountain View Reverse Engineering meetup habit into a new show.", "The episode asks why they started the podcast, what reverse engineering gives firmware engineers, and why they still keep coming back to the bench.", "The discussion moves through PCB reverse engineering, Ghidra, KiCad, x-rays, and stories about the white van, Google badges, and John's garage chemistry."]
Alvaro and Jen use episode 072 of the Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast to audit more than seven years of production, including 72 episodes, 73 hours, 17 minutes, 59 seconds of audio, and 230,983 unique downloads.
An interview with a researcher about wireless hacking and reverse engineering in mobile networking.
Hosts Alvaro and Jen interview John McMaster about his work in computer chip reverse engineering and firmware extraction, discussing his background in embedded software for imaging satellites and the origins of the Mountain View Reverse Engineering Meetup.
Hosts discuss their year's highlights attending hardware and security conferences, focusing on reverse engineering projects.
At Hackaday Supercon 2019, hosts interview attendees about their reverse engineering projects and experiences.